When we hear the word Refrigerator, most of us think of a fridge stationed in our homes. Refrigeration is much more than just cooling. There’s a whole segment of commercial refrigeration, which is unheard of by many. There are various types of commercial refrigerators in the market. If you’re planning to start a food outlet, restaurant, or QSR (Quick Service Restaurant), you must know these basic types of commercial refrigerators. Let’s have a look at some of them.

Visi Coolers or Reach-In Refrigerators / Freezers
A Visi-Cooler or Reach-In Refrigerators is a vertical unit designed to be placed in restaurants and commercial kitchens. These types of units have smaller footprint in so many kitchens and have multiple presence at key locations, enabling staff to quickly grab necessary ingredients, without having to venture far from their stations or search through a large walk-in unit. It is the most used refrigeration unit in the food service industry due to its versatility, reasonable cost, size, and storage efficiency. You can avail this type of freezer in both glass door reach-in units and solid door reach-in units. It is mainly used for storing food/beverage and raw ingredients in commercial kitchen.

Horizontal Freezer / Deep Freezer / Chest Freezer
Chest freezers sit horizontally on the floor and are deep freezers. This static refrigeration unit proves ideal when adding food items into it. If there’s a power cut in summers, the chest freezer will keep your food frozen for a longer period of time. They also tend to consume less electricity.

Walk-in Refrigerators
Walk-in refrigerators or walk-in freezers are akin to big walk-in closets or a walk-in cold room and are used as the main cold storage area for commercial restaurants/kitchens to preserve food, ingredients, and drinks/beverages cold and fresh. It’s like a storehouse for storing juices, alcohol, bulk, or boxed items. This is an optimal option for commercial refrigeration when you’re planning to start a restaurant. You can also ask the operator to set up commercial shelving operations to increase this type of static refrigeration efficiency. 

Serve Over Counter
This is a perfect choice for small-time entrepreneurs who own cafes, grocery stores, or meat outlets or planning to do so. They enhance the appeal of the food items, making them look more appetizing to the customers. This refrigerator has a display level or bent glass doors that don’t completely cover the items, making it easy for the consumers to avail themselves of food items as per their choice, unlike counter-top display refrigerators. 

Under Counter Chiller / Freezer
This refrigeration unit is like the reach-in refrigeration; the only difference that acts as the USP of this refrigeration system is that it is way shorter than the reach-in companies and can manage to fit in smaller space. It is a compact, portable unit that is apt for a commercial kitchen. It is a great option if your commercial kitchen needs a small team to store few products that can be used as per the need. Under the counter, refrigeration is the right match for people having cloud kitchens or small food counter.

Bar Refrigerator / Back Bar
There is an entire segment of bar refrigerators, which comprises of various back bar refrigerators, plate chillers, keg coolers, etc. This kind of refrigerator is generally designed with black vinyl or a stainless steel exterior to make the under-counter bar area look more streamlined in its approach.

Pastry Cabinets / Confectionery Cabinets
Pastry Cabinets mostly have a conventional wooden finish or stainless steel curved with glass. The front part is covered with glass for the customers to view all the bakery’s confections, enabling them to make a choice. These pastry cabinets keep the freshness of the items intact while they are on display.

Refrigerated Prep Tables
These units have a significant demand in the preparation area or cook line in the commercial kitchen. There are two types of refrigerated prep tables: the pizza prep tables and the sandwich/salad tables. Cold storage is quintessential in keeping the ingredients fresh for a longer period.